“Ayakashi” and “Odilon Redon”
Two current exhibitions take
a look at the Old-Fashioned
world of the Weird
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| Odilon Redon, Profile of Light, 1886, print, 34.4 x 24.2cm |
| Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu |
During August, the blistering heat combined with obon—the celebration of the return of the dead—has traditionally stirred a penchant for the bone-chilling world of ghosts. Macabre stories and hair-raising, goose-bumpy images in art are a favorite during this month—a sure way to cool the senses.
Now showing until August 26 are two exhibitions that not only guarantee a respite from the heat, but also a fascinating look at the old world of the weird. “Ayakashi,” at the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Harajuku, offers a series of 80 works by some of Japan’s greatest woodblock printers of the ukiyo-e tradition. Not far away in Shibuya at the Bunkamura Museum of Art is “Les Noirs de Redon,” showing a series of works by the French Symbolist artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916).
Among the Japanese, there is a rich tradition of belief in the supernatural. Shinto animistic practices, esoteric Taoist and Buddhist teachings, a faith in reincarnation and transformation, reverence for the sacredness of nature, and a simple belief in ghosts have, through art, inspired imaginary creatures and scary beings that take human form. Taking many images from popular kabuki plays, the striking woodblock prints and hanging scrolls of the “Ayakashi” show are a virtual encyclopedia of Japan’s world of the supernatural: yuurei (human ghosts—often sorrowful or revengeful women), youkai (monsters, goblins, phantoms, animal ghosts), oni (demons, devils), youjutsushi (sorcerers), kappa (supernatural frog-like creatures), ubume (magical birds transformed from women who died in childbirth), bakeneko (cat ghosts), dodomeki (monsters with hundreds of eyes). They are depicted by well-known artists such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, Toyokuni Utagawa III, Kuniyoshi Utagawa and Yoshitoshi Tsukioka.
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| Odilon Redon, Temptation of Saint Anthony (First Series) V, 1888, print, 27.6 x 17.0 cm |
| Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu |
Removed from the cultural belief in the supernatural, Odilon Redon instead created images from his dreams. Like many literary and visual artists of the late-1800s Symbolist movement, Redon was influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. “My drawings transport us to the ambiguous world of the indeterminate,” he said. With their mythological dream imagery, Symbolist painters influenced the Art Nouveau and Les Nabis movements, as well as seminal figures like Edvard Munch, Freda Kahlo and Russian painters such as Mikhail Vrubel. Matisse and, later, the Surrealist painters credited Redon as one of their inspirations.
Redon lived and worked in his native Bordeaux before moving to Paris in 1870 at the age of 30. Mentioned in a popular novel written in 1884, he emerged from anonymity into the spotlight
of recognition, newly associated with the age of decadence. His charcoal “noir” drawings and dramatic lithographs of bizarre hybrid creatures—plants with human heads, insects with faces, objects implanted with a singular bulbous eye—were his dominant work until he reached his 50s. In keeping with the ghoulish August theme, the Bunkamura show contains work largely from this period.
A religious crisis and serious illness in his 50s transformed Redon from an unhappy borderline recluse—not unlike one of his awkward creature inventions—into a buoyant, outgoing personality. His luminous, colorful oil paintings and pastel drawings of flowers and mythological figures from this period reflected his new persona. The differences between these and his earlier works are remarkable, almost schizophrenic.
Ghouls and ghosts still walk the plains of our imagination, but why worry about those Caspers created in the 1800s? We now have a new genre of macabre art—splatter films, or gornoporn—ready to reinvent our nightmares. What artistic endeavors could possibly be next riled from our imagination, fears and fascination with the darker side?
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